


So Uncivilized

by Corde_And_Dorme



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Obi-Wan Kenobi, Force Bonds, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, Kidnapping, M/M, Mind Meld, Non-Jedi!Anakin, Obi-Wan leaves the Jedi, Obi-wan gives like 0 fucks, ObiKinBigBang2018, Padme basically adopts Anakin, Qui-Gon Lives, Strangers to Friends, The space mob AU that nobody asked for especially not me, big sister Padme, obikin, okay maybe one fuck, that fuck is for Anakin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-20 14:57:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14263542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corde_And_Dorme/pseuds/Corde_And_Dorme
Summary: Eight years ago Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Padawan, was knighted for killing the Sith Maul.Eight years ago, Qui-Gon lived.Eight years ago, Anakin was sent away by the Jedi Council to Naboo with the then-Queen Padme Amidala, for being too old to train, for being dangerous, for being alive when they would have prefered he not exist.Eight years ago, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s had swore he would train Anakin before a dying Qui-Gon.Eight years ago, the Council made Obi-Wan Kenobi a liar.Six years ago, Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sith Killer, left the Jedi Order.Five years ago, a new System Lord made himself known.Now, on Naboo at the Festival of Lights, Obi-Wan Kenobi, hidden System Lord of the Auriia, meets Anakin Skywalker, the kid who was supposed to be his Padawan. Anakin Skywalker is a sullen, angry, bright spot in the Force - and Obi-Wan decides then and there:He’s mine.





	1. A Different Kind of Future

**Author's Note:**

> This is my submission for the ObiKin BigBang 2018. It will be posted sporadically. I have half written, and the rest plotted pretty well. Hope you enjoy!  
> This first part takes place a few years in the future, but idk I thought I'd make sure you all knew that EVENTUALLY we gonna get there. It's gonna take some time though.

Anakin knelt in front of Obi-Wan. For once, the younger man was not covered in blood, nor were his clothing torn and ripped to shreds. For once, he was in the same clothes he had left in, without rumple or wrinkle. Anakin was dressed in a mix of Naboo and Jedi fashion, a statement as clear as not being a Jedi was, made of dark material that he preferred.

He was calm. A placid pool of all his emotions equalled. Just as Obi-Wan had taught him.

“It is done?” Obi-Wan asked as he swiped through the datapad that Anakin had given him before his supplication. The information all seemed to be in order.

The younger man snorted before looking up. “Is water wet?”

“Well,” Obi-Wan smirked. “There are two schools of thought on that, dear one -” 

Anakin interrupted before he could continue.

“Yes, yes, it’s done! Honestly, Master,” Anakin couldn’t stop himself from the fond look he shot at his employer, his master, his friend. “Count Dooku shall not be dirtying our airspace any time soon,”

Obi-Wan looked down at him then, his eyes alight with mischief as he ran a hand through Anakin’s soft hair. Anakin relaxed as the petting turned into his hair being fisted, gently, always so gently in the beginning, before Obi-Wan tilted his face farther back. His throat a tight column. Then Obi-Wan’s hand left his hair, yet Anakin did not move an inch. 

“You weren’t careless, were you?” Obi-Wan asked, his voice a purr as he skittered his fingertips down Anakin’s jaw, his throat, to his chin.

“Of course not, Obi-Wan,” Anakin answered, oh so truthfully it glowed in between their bond. “I left no trace of myself. At best, he’ll think it was the Jedi,”

“And at its worst?”

“Well,” Anakin shivered as those strong fingers righted his head at his chin, forcing him to meet Obi-Wan’s eyes. “The Hutt Empire has been getting in your way...”

Obi-Wan was shocked for only a moment at Anakin’s audacity, at his forethought, before he threw his head back and laughed. Anakin preened, well aware of how rare a response that was. He’d been getting better at eliciting it from Kenobi, but it was still sweet every time he managed it.

“Oh Anakin, whatever shall I do with you? You brilliant man, you,”

“I suppose you’ll have to keep me,” Anakin said, languidly stretching forward more into Obi-Wan’s still-there grip on his chin.

“That was  **never** in question, dearheart,”

The grip tightened, almost enough to bruise. Anakin felt a tingle in their bond, awareness, arousal, sparks.

“Did you ever think we’d be here?” Anakin asked, closing his eyes and breathing deeply as Obi-Wan slowly began to open their connection. Anakin always kept it open, always inviting, always ready - because Obi-Wan was the one with control. That was never in question. It was as absolute as their bond. Ever since that night on Naboo, Anakin had found he had very little resistance left in him for anything else.

“From the moment I saw you, Anakin,” Obi-Wan assured. “I knew you were to be mine,”

His lips twitched into a broad smile as Anakin groaned as their bond opened in full. One strong thumb stroked his cheek, leaving a trail of fire, and desire, to prickle and awaken under the elder’s touch.

“I just thought, rather stupidly, it would be as Jedi,”

“You’ve never once been stupid,” Anakin murmured, shifting as Obi-Wan’s other hand came to cup his jaw.

“Not even when we were reunited?”

Anakin smiled. “I think I was more stupid than you,”

Obi-Wan thought to himself in the privately of his own mind,  _ Perhaps. Doubt it though. _


	2. Abandoned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So these next few chapters are going to be a little short. It's going to be staggered between Obi-Wan's POV and Anakin's. The first chapter was the future, these next chapters are going to be the lead up to Obi-Wan and Anakin meeting for the first time in eight years. I will probably post the Anakin and Obi-Wan sections (each two chapters) together, but once they actually meet.  
> :D :D

_ After the Naboo Invasion - Naboo - Anakin _  

Anakin Skywalker is not a kid anymore. At eighteen, he was tall, just growing out of his gangly youth, past the precipice of childhood and dropping off the cliff into the adulthood.  _ And _ , most importantly he thought of himself,  _ not a Jedi. _

There was a time, eight years ago, when the possibility had existed. 

He had been rescued ( _ he’d won the race, _ his mind reminded him.  _ He’d bought his own freedom _ ) from the horrid planet of Tatooine, by Qui-Gon ( _ he owed the man nothing _ ). Then he had been told he was strong in the Force, and that Qui-Gon would train him. Up until the battle of Naboo, he had believed it.

Even after he had believed that Qui-Gon really would train him to be a Jedi. Qui-Gon had been rushed off planet, after all, with that wound of his. They were worried he wasn’t even going to walk! Anakin hadn’t even been told they were leaving. But he kept hope.

Then a day passed. 

He asked Padme on the second day. “When will the Jedi be back?”

She was still a queen, so busy fixing her broken triumphant planet, rarely time left to herself, but she always set aside time for him. Perhaps she felt indebted to him, at the beginning before their friendship had begun to blossom into a kinship that had nothing to do with blood, but she always spoke with him.

This time she had very few words:

“I don’t know if they  _ will  _ come back, Ani,”

Her planet was in shambles, yes, but it wasn’t so bad that the Jedi had to be called to assist. The Trade Federation was gone. The  Nubian’s world was in shambles, but the pieces just needed to be picked up. The people of Naboo did not war against each other. No terrorism was at hand. Thus, the Jedi were not needed.

At the time, Anakin had just stuck out his chin, and crossed his arms, and refused to believe it. The Jedi had found him after all. Why would they save him if not to train him? He was very useful, a very talented slave - he could be even more as a Jedi!

Yet... A week passed. A month. Two months.

Anakin didn’t lose hope, didn’t dare question if they would come for him or not. They would. As a slave, he was used to losing hope, and he was also used to holding onto what he had with a firm grip, fingers locked, and no doubt in his mind about breaking those fingers before losing said object or feeling. Faith was a whisper in the wind every night, every morning, and every second of every day. It was the secret moment's in between life, that made life worth living.

But this was not like a beating. Or a whipping. Or a culling.

This was a slow eroding of his faith. Every day he would wake up, wondering if the Jedi were back, if they were here for him - and every day he was disappointed. He was drained. Emotionally, frayed.

It took six months.

Padme had mostly gotten the planet back in working order. There were still buildings being rebuilt, still people displaced, still work to be done - but it was better. She had free time, and so she and Anakin were eating lunch out by the lake.

It was as Anakin was fiddling with his lid of his drink that he said. “They aren’t coming for me, are they?”

Padme, having already guessed he would come to this conclusion months ago, only looked at him sadly.

“No. No, Ani,” She said, with a great big sigh, like the world was on her shoulders and she alone could carry it. “I don’t think the Jedi are coming back,”

He knew that she meant it not just because her planet was on its own, was getting back to its feet and no longer needed Jedi intervention. The Force told Anakin that Padme was being brutally honest. This was just a truth he would have to accept.

Anakin nodded, but tears prickled at the corners of his eyes. Anger licked at his heart. Hurt battered his ribs. He felt... useless and unwanted. Padme was sitting next to him, had championed him, and let him stay with her, and yet... he’d never felt so completely abandoned.

“Qui-Gon promised...”

Padme didn’t defend him.

Promises, Anakin learned of the Jedi, were about as useful as the stars.

Pretty words, that sparked hope in your heart, but that ultimately were unreachable as they were bright.

No Jedi came to Naboo. Not for a long, long time.


	3. Desertion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now Obi-Wan's POV!

_ After the Naboo Invasion - Coruscant - Obi-Wan _

Leaving the Jedi had been a bittersweet pill to swallow for Obi-Wan, but he had done it because it was necessary. Perhaps not necessary to see his Master go stony face and cold in shock at his announcement, or necessary in the sense that everyone this side of Tatooine had disagreed with his actions, but more because he had to. For him. For his own sanity.

Yes, his Master had survived the Sith’s attempt on his life, but he wasn’t the one who had promised he would train the boy Anakin. He was. Obi-Wan Kenobi. He had sworn, as his Master had laid dying. And he had made that promise with no deflection in mind. He was called many things, but liar had never been one.

The Council had made him a liar. 

Sending away the boy, Anakin Skywalker, with the  Nubian Queen before Obi-Wan could properly tell him he was going to train him, saying it was for his own good, the will of the Force, yada yada yada. In the flurry of activity afterwards, Obi-Wan had found himself in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant with his fealing Master - but without Anakin. The Council had denied his petition to return to the war torn planet. And it was then, Obi-Wan knew years later, that it all truely began to go down himm. After all, the Council had made Obi-Wan a liar only to himself. 

But still a liar.

It started off like any other Jedi knighting. He and his Master were seperated.

Knighted, he had went off on his own missions. Again and again and again. Alone. His Master temple bound due to injuries and because of their ritualistic separation. Alone, he questioned. Alone he fought. Alone he triumphed. Alone he slept. Alone he persevered. Alone he heard of his Master’s Master forsaking the Order. Alone he realized how that made him feel. 

Alone he realized, shame was not one of those feelings. 

Alone, he made his decision.

“I’m leaving the Order,” Obi-Wan announced, the next time he was on his Jedi home planet. He did not hesitate. He did not waffled. He looked each member of the Council in the eye and announced as if he were announcing any other event in his life to them.

_ You failed me,  _ He tried to transmit, _ each and every single one of you. And I won’t stand for it anymore. _

Qui-Gon tried to convince him to stay, but at that point they’d barely spoken in the past few years except greetings in the hallway. He was his Master in name only. Not once since he had killed the Sith did Qui-Gon seek him out. It had... stung in a way that Obi-Wan was not ready for. To really be just another Padawan, to be let go so easily, to not be an attachment as all Padawan secretly hoped to be. 

So. Obi-Wan listened dispassionately as Qui-Gon said more words to him that night, than he had in all the years leading up to it. He waited, too, when he was finished rambling. Perhaps cruelly, but Obi-Wan wasn’t exactly feeling like being nice.

So he told Qui-Gon: “Am I, or am I not, supposed to make my own choices?”

And this was his choice.

Qui-Gon had left, storming off, and showing far more emotion that Obi-Wan was ready to handle from him.

Becoming a crime lord was... perhaps not a choice, but a natural progression. And it started like this:

He had, literally, stumbled upon the opportunity. 

The job market for an ex-Jedi was surprisingly vast. Those trained in the Force were few and far inbetween. Those not Jedi even fewer. He had job offers within the moment he’d stepped off the temple steps and into that sleazy bar his Master had first taken him to get the ‘real world’ experience. Bouncer, hitman, bodyguard, smuggler - the list went on and on.

He decided that being a bodyguard wasn’t the worst opportunity (it was damn near Jedi in its job title.  _ Protector _ .) and had chosen one of the less violent crime lords, Kel Drog Nouto, to try his hand at protecting. 

“Ex-Jedi, eh?” The Bimm was shorter than a human, but bearded. He looked like a kind old man, and it aided him greatly in evading capture. Who would assume an unassuming man like him would be the criminal lord of Bimmisaari, a relatively peaceful and hospitable planet?

Still, Obi-Wan was caught up in the same assumptions and the same wool being pulled over his own eyes, same as the general population.

His mistake.

Kel Drog was kind, in a way, but the facts were still the fact. He was a crime lord, through and through. Obi-Wan learned first hand what that entailed on the first day of the job when he had been informed (eavesdropped) of two moons imploding due to illegal mining, the sale of five hundred slaves in the Saari Ha system, as well as a number of assassinations in the works. 

At heart, he was a Jedi. Except, he really wasn’t any longer. He’d seen how the Jedi had failed the people of the Galaxy time after time - and decided he would let it be. He would do his work. Finish his job and then... evaluate the necessity of letting Kel Drog live. His Jedi training aided him greatly in the face of evil, because he had already dealt with a number of politicians more slimy than his current employer.

Obi-Wan had met his fair share of crooks, and sneaks, and all manner of evil being; all still alive - and he knew he needed to be paid. So, biding his time, he waited.

Six weeks was the job.

On the last day, he disposed of his boss within the hour of his contract’s end.

He had killed before. The Sith. A few assassins in service to the Jedi, as a servant to the Republic. Yet, there was something different in this kill. Something a little... colder. He felt no passion, nor anger, or anything really. He didn’t feel like he was Falling. He just felt... powerful.

It was something that needed to be done. For the good of the galaxy...

And Obi-Wan had been protecting the galaxy since he could walk, since he could talk. He decided, in front of the still smoking corpse of the crime lord, that this wasn’t so different than being a Jedi.

With this man’s death, many trade deals would fall through, which would lead to loss of profit, and loss of infrastructure, albeit briefly. It was a small action, but it would help... somewhere, somehow... it would help.

So began the rather tedious and plasma filled life of Obi-Wan Kenobi, bodyguard for hire. And his subsequent assassination of a number of the lower, slimery criminals that were barely lords of filth let alone of crime... It wasn’t till nearly six months had passed, and he had killed what would be his twelfth crime lord, his twelfth skeeze, that Obi-Wan realized just how fickle the criminal world was.

Once one was dead, another quickly took his or her place. There was always one creatures ready to take up the recently vacated spot of crime lord. Whether it be for money, or prestige, or any number of things that drew weak minded, simpletons to a position of such shortened life span, the position was filled within days.

Sitting in one of his more frequented bars on his home planet, Obi-Wan realized that this cycle was not one he wanted to perpetuate. Tipsy, but never drunk, an idea came to Obi-Wan then. 

_ What was a crime lord except a low life that had taken over the empire of another’s making?  _

_ What was a crime lord that met Obi-Wan Kenobi, but another dead man walking? _

_ And what were those accounts that belonged to a dead crime lord, if not completely useless? _

Useless, perhaps, to the dead, but Obi-Wan found that he’d been thinking of this all wrong.

He was working for system lords, for criminals who didn't deserve their empires, and killing them; when he could be killing them and  _ taking  _ their influence as his own. 

Almost bucking the idea, his Jedi upbringing, ideology, and thoughts spinning around his head at a dizzying pace, he had to work at silencing all the objections brought from his subconscious with Jedi leanings. And found there were very few reasons to  **not** go through with his newly hatched plan.

This was for the good of the galaxy, after all. Obi-Wan Kenobi was nothing if not a man of the people.

Within the next two months, Obi-Wan amassed a decent following out of the ashes of three long-lived empires of the Toria of the Easter Rim, the Himmammas, of the smuggler trade, and the Smithson, slavers most evil. All crime families with long histories of abuse, of spice/drugs/death sticks. Within the next six months, he had an entire system under his sway.

Within eight, the Trade Federation didn’t dare fuck with him.

His name had spread like wildfire throughout the galaxy. Those with sense realized he must have amassed it through dubious means, but since he did not dabble in many of the worst pursuits of life - such as slavery, trafficking, drug dealings (not personally anyway), or prostitution - he was left ultimately alone. He was new to the field, sure, but he was a known player. A Jedi, like the Count of Serenno, Dooku; that had left their home to make the galaxy a better place through their own means. He made himself so. Even helping whatever law-enforcement that found itself on his tail by gently nudging them towards worse crime lords.

It was so easy not to be the worst when the bar was so low.


	4. Encounter

_ 8 years after the Battle of Naboo - Anakin _

After a grueling six years of training, Anakin had finally been assigned to Padme’s security squad. No longer was Padme the queen, true, but as a senator there were many people vying for her death inside and outside the political arena. And Anakin had trained with the best of the guard, and though inexperienced, he had the Force on his side.

He was not formally trained in the Force like the Jedi, but he did admirably well. The Nubian philosophy on the Force was interesting, and nearly tribal, as on Tatooine had been. The children that didn’t leave with the Jedi were usually just treated as normal citizens. Anakin was no different. It had been almost a whole year since he had an accidental use of the Force, which was largely in part to the training regimine that his mentor, Tanner Aki, had put in place for him. It included keeping him busy (not just his mind, but his body as well), hours upon hours of drills and kata, along with a few hours each night in the Royal Shipyard to fix broken machinery. The Nubians knew how to use every skill, after all.

Today, was a little off track. 

He, along with Padme’s other guards, and Padme herself, were going to the Festival of Lights. A celebration that happened annually on Naboo. These kinds of things were always the same. Scan the crows emotions, alert the guards when someone started feeling froggy or irate, and stay out of the way of the ‘professionals’. As he scanned the crowd, Anakin became bored easily, and he withdrew into his own head. 

Anakin often wondered what his life would have been like on Tatooine, had his Force-presence been discovered by his Master. Or anyone really. What would he be? Who would own him? Would he be free?

... Would his mom?

Getting to Tatooine was easy, but actually freeing his mother was... not. Perhaps the Jedi would have been able to do it, but as a guest of the Royal House of Naboo, Anakin’s hands, as well as the planets hands, had been tied. They couldn’t just go BUY a slave, not without buying  _ all  _ of them. Anakin was the exception to the rule, because, technically, he had bought himself. They could visit his mother, sure, but what was the point if Anakin had to just leave her all over again?

He’d already been rejected from the Jedi. Selfishly, he didn’t want his mom to see him like this.

It was better that both of them lived in ignorance of the other, with only the highest hopes allowed. 

Anakin a Jedi. Shmi free. In a perfect world...

Anakin shook his head and went back to scanning the crowd for threats. The celebration happeneding now was when most politicians came back to visit the homeland, which painted huge targets for all manner of assassins and threats.

It wasn’t till his second scanning of the large room that he saw him.

He wore the finest of silks, in gold and silver and red, artfully done. Not over the top, just enough to show status, to show power, to announce his presence with the barely-there-tinkle of jewelry. His hair was... faintly swooshy, held together every single strand is, except for one lock that falls across his brow. He has a face fit for nobility, with an artfully trimmed beard. But it’s the Force around him which draws Anakin’s eye. His force presence is muted, but behind it, like a cave surrounding a krayt dragon, is something unique and awe inspiring. Patient, but powerful. 

“Who is he?” Anakin asks Padme, unable to take his eyes off the man.

The Force whispers to him that  _ familiar  _ this man is. 

Anakin has gotten better at listening to the Force. It wasn’t like he had a real Master to listen to anyway...

Sometimes, when the Jedi were around, he wondered how they could miss all the little things that the Force whispered.

_ Don’t touch that. Go this way. Put the plant down. Follow that man. Stop. Listen. Don’t. Stop. Go. Run! Sit and relax. _

Anakin remembered this man. Except, he remembered a younger man. With a braid in his hair, shorn short, those bright blue eyes sad and angry and devastated. He remembered the older man too. The one with the long hair, and the whiskers. The kind eyes, the quirky smile. The one who had given him such hope. A goal. An aspiration.

Jedi. Qui-Gon was a Jedi. This man was one too.

Except he is not. He may not have a lightsaber at his belt, but the feeling is unmistakable. 

In the years he’s lived with Padme, he’s met Jedi. Glared at them when they became too friendly with the Queen-now-turned-Senator; talked with them. Became increasingly glad he was never actually taken to train the longer he’s known them. Stuffy, he called them behind their backs and to their faces. Frumpy, and plain, and any number of things that Anakin is not. They are not bright in the Force, they are mute. They are so quiet as to be silent. It is how they are taught, of course, but it is true all the same. Something feral and wild, that was alive in everyone else, seemed to be subdued in the Jedi.

Anakin refuses to emulate even one of their attributes except perhaps honor, loyalty, and talent.

Padme actually averted her face before answering, her voice grave. Her tone... not afraid, Padme was rarely afraid. But cautious. Yes, cautious.

“You don’t remember him, Ani?”

Anakin wanted to roll his eyes. If he had, would he be asking?

“He was the Jedi I came with... when Qui-Gon freed me,” Anakin answered, his eyes glued. “I remember him... I just don’t remember his name,”

Padme stared at him. Eyes unreadable.

“That’s  _ Obi-Wan Kenobi _ , Anakin,”

_ Oh. _ Anakin thinks, head whipping around to look at the man in a new light. Suddenly, his guard is heightened, he imagines every possible exit he can, every way Obi-Wan Kenobi can make his way over here - and slaughter them all. Suddenly, the fact that he doesn’t have a lightsaber is barely a relief.

Because the stories that people tell about the crime lord Obi-Wan Kenobi...

Anakin shivered despite his prowess, despite his training, despite his ability to defend his friend Padme to the end of the world and back. Despite his arrogance, and his talent, and his can-do-attitude about the Force... There are just some things that beat brute force, and power, and Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of them.

And then the man looked over at him.

His eyes were like ice chips. Worn, and smooth, but that would cut you at just the right velocity. In his gaze, Anakin saw things nipping on the edge of his vision like a force-puppy-dog vying for his attention. Glory. Battle. Side by side. There was a glimpse that stayed stuck in his head, even after he had pulled himself away from the vision; a fraction of a moment shared between them. 

Back to back, clothing torn and grinning victoriously, they fought. Against droids, mechanical beings, and flesh and blood. Lightsaber, or blaster, or fists, or swords made of metal, dark and light. Bloody or wounds cauterized. Bleeding or not. Together.

It was a vision. A future that could happen. A past. A parallel.

Yet, like all things of the Force... fleeting. One moment there, gone the next. It was ephemeral, yes, yet all consuming. There was a presence in the man’s gaze. It weighed him down.

In his head, like a whisper, like the wind, he heard,  **_mine_ ** .

Anakin Skywalker, free-man that he was, knew he was fucked.


	5. Convene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan's point of view of their meeting!  
> Two for one because that's how this is gonna work. :) Now that I found the time and all...

_ 8 years after the Battle of Naboo - Anakin _

A couple of years had passed since that late night drinking in a bar - and here Obi-Wan was. Inviting by the Queen’s own hand to the Naboo Festival of Lights. It paid off to be known as the Sith-Killer in every single circle of influence there was. Former-Jedi was nice, but Sith-Killer was singular and unique.

It also paid off to be well known as a crime lord in the right circles, the ones that believed.

Socializing was always a necessary evil. He did not stay and talk to many persons for long, fluttering among the crowd with purpose, but always staying unendingly polite. He saw a few of the more dubious dealers and made sure they knew he had seen them. They were small fries, at the bottom of his list to kill, but they knew their business partners had been steadily disappearing - and they knew that the name Kenobi was attached to those kill orders. And to the land that Kenobi now owned and had slapped a huge ‘fuck off’ to.

Feeling eyes on his back, and a curious, too curious, Force-presence; Obi-Wan sighed. So there were Jedi here, it seemed. He had ignored their angry, nearly impatient attention, for the past five minutes, but now was as good a time to greet his old brethren as any time was.

That was when he turned and met the liquid blue eyes of the tall blond. He couldn’t be more than twenty. Not a child, but not a man. He was dressed like one of the Naboo guard, except much less formal. His belt held only a blaster, no sword. His hair down, cropped to just long enough to wave, he was almost too pretty to be a threat - except for the Force bright in his aura. He held himself trained, but he gave himself away as a novice with his wavering stance, and his blatant one track mind.

The boy stared at him, and Obi-Wan felt the Force sing. 

Obi-Wan felt the Force tell him so much, and yet so little about the boy before him. Angry, passionate, powerful, with a sound like a crackle of a fire out of control - everything the Jedi could only hate and find distasteful. Obi-Wan couldn’t help himself but find it entrancing. The boy had so many scars, mentally and physically, they stood against the Force like they were on Obi-Wan’s own skin.

But, by the stars, how his presence  _ glowed _ .

It was like meeting an old friend again. How quickly the Force was to sizzle around them, twisting the air into a static charge, heating it up, releasing only when they breathed. Except neither breathed.

For before Obi-Wan, was Anakin Skywalker. 

The Padawan the Jedi Council had taken from. 

The Padawan the Council had denied him.

_ Except the Council wasn’t here, now, were they? _

Obi-Wan found himself smiling, which froze the blond even more. Anakin didn’t move. Neither did Obi-Wan, but Anakin doubly so as their eyes stayed glued to one another. The Force was an open pathway between them, not a bond, but also so full of possibilities and history - and Obi-Wan couldn’t help himself. He had closed himself away from most Force-sensitivities for a good few years, and he, admittedly, was a little freer with his presence then he might have once been as a Jedi Knight. Which is why the visions didn't take him by surprise.

He had not felt this kind of together-ness since Qui-Gon. Back to back. Together against the world. Anakin's smile, bright and fierce, his presence in the Force heavy with loyalty and promise.

Obi-Wan couldn't help but stare.

**_Mine,_ ** he sent to Anakin. Perhaps a little more forcefully as the blond’s eyes widened and he paled.

Then Anakin was turning around and fleeing.

Obi-Wan decided he’d give chase later. 

It wasn’t like his Force-presence was dim, in fact it was damn near as blinding as a sun. He left a trail of panic a mile wide as he fled. He’d be easy to find, Obi-Wan was sure. And Obi-Wan would pursue.

With that thought Obi-Wan turned back to the party.


	6. Set Things Straight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little bit late on the update. It's been... a long time so there! Enjoy!

Anakin didn’t run because Obi-Wan was terrifying, or because he was handsome, nor because he was everything the Force had never given him in a connection between another human or creature in all of the known universe. No. Anakin ran because looking at Obi-Wan, he remembered Qui-Gon. The Jedi. The Force.

He remembered the promises, the hope, the crushing sense of disappointment and agony of being left behind. The deep chasm in his heart still had yet to heal, all this time later, and he wished desperately to fill it with anything but memories. But Anakin only had his memories. The kind that hurt, that prickled, that were awful simply because they existed. 

_ Stupid Qui-Gon Jinn _ , Anakin thought to himself as he drew his long legs up onto the bench with him. Staring off into nothing.

It was a cruel thing Jinn had done. Leave him. Abandon him. After promising him the world.

Didn’t the Jedi teach not to do such things? Or was it common practice? Was Jinn just cruel on principle? Were the Jedi? Did they not understand that all things felt, all things hoped, all things dreamed. All things breathed, and frolicked, and sung, and danced.

And, most importantly, they all bled.

Anakin shook his head. Those were the same old questions that seemed to run through his head whenever he thought of the one man he was sure wouldn’t let him down, but had.

Now Qui-Gon’s apprentice was here. Out of every single person in all of existence, out of every bright star in the sky...

It had to be Obi-Wan  _ fucking  _ Kenobi.

* * *

“Anakin!” Padme scolded as she followed him outside into the garden. “You can’t just run off like that!”

Anakin didn’t say anything as he collapsed on a bench. He was shaking, Padme noticed, and began to worry. Her worry ramped up by about twenty when he curled around himself, arms hugging his waist as he breathed deeply, a gasping jagged thing.

Padme hesitated.

“Anakin?”

Still he was silent in a way that was completely un-Anakin-like. Ever since he had been a boy, left to her care by the Jedi so callously, he had been a ray of sunshine, powerful and brilliant. They’d grown up together like brother and sister. Protector and protectee. Her guard, her friend, her brother. He was her best friend and vice versa.

She placed a hand on his back, in between his shoulder blades. He shuddered at her touch.

“He -”

Padme held her breath. 

“He’s not quite what I remember,” Anakin whispered.

Padme’s worry did not dissipate. Anakin whispering was almost as bad as his silence.

“What happened in there Anakin?” Padme asked, calmly, wanting to go inside and throttle Obi-Wan Kenobi no matter the fact he would sense her intentions the moment she stepped in the room. “What did he do?”

That animated Anakin.

“He didn’t even do anything!” Anakin exclaimed, burying his head in his hands. “He just - I just - He -”

Anakin Skywalker was not exactly the best about dealing with his feelings. Padme had long ago accepted that. But this was just baffling. Maybe he needed to work through some... feelings. He had certainly not been attracted to anyone deeply. The inside of her friends mind was probably the hottest of messes. And that was saying something, because she had been there when Sabe had broken up with her two boyfriends simultaneously.

“You can talk to me, Ani,”

Ani snapped at her. “I know that!”

His body language was like that of a cornered lion. Padme realized this was one of the few times she needed to be diplomatic with him.

“... Do you want to be left alone for a bit?”

His eyes were bright. 

“I - Well... Maybe?”

“I can leave...?”

Anakin clenched his fist and pressed his mouth into a line, trying to stop himself from begging her not to leave. But he wasn’t a child anymore. He didn’t need to cry into her skirt as he was taken away from his dream, from the Jedi. Didn’t need to shout and pout about the unfairness of it all. He didn’t need her to hold his hand and talk through his feelings, so he pushed those thoughts away. 

He shook his head.

And Padme, light of his life, understood to some extent.

“Alright, Ani.”

And she was gone.

* * *

Obi-Wan gave the kid an hour. He was aware he had probably come on a little strong, but it didn’t change the fact that Anakin Skywalker should have been his. His to train, his to protect, his to  _ teach _ . And yet, thanks to the Jedi Council sticking their noses into business that didn’t concern them - he hadn’t been given leave to do such things.

Instead, the bright little kid had turned into a sullen teenager. Instead, Obi-Wan had been knighted. Instead... too many things, truly. Untaught, unrefined, and probably so very alone; Anakin Skywalker wasn’t what he should have been. So much potential. Stomped out.

Kind of like him. 

It made Obi-Wan stop as he considered it.

The Jedi had done both of them wrong. Anakin was promised control, understanding, and a career path. Obi-Wan was promised a lifetime of helping people, of doing the right thing and receiving the right reward, as well as prestige on every world he traveled. Not to mention when he had been sent to bandomeer before Qui-Gon Jinn had decided to teach him.

Yet, neither of them received that. Anakin had been tossed aside, sent to the Nubians, and left without a word (Obi-Wan had checked, and had been appalled that his Master had not told young Anakin what was happening). Obi-Wan had been turned into a liar, tossed aside for a kid half his age, and knighted for killing someone, something that the Jedi usually abhorred, but kill the right person and all is forgiven.

Hypocrisy had taken over both their lives.

Obi-Wan continued walking and soon found the object of his attention.

Sitting on a bench in the garden, Anakin was trying, and failing, to hid his Force presence. It had the same effect as a full grown man trying to hide behind a sapling. It only worked because others allowed it to work. Unfortunately, Obi-Wan had never been the kids Master, so he had no reason to humor him.

“Anakin Skywalker,” Obi-Wan stated as he calmly walked towards the boy, hands clasped behind his back as he glided forward. “As I live and breath,”

The kid jumped up, spinning around with wide eyes and ridiculously floofy hair. Seriously, had he never taken a brush to it? 

For all the anger, all that unhappiness and weariness and hurt - he didn’t speak a word. 

Obi-Wan sighed at that. So it was going to be like pulling teeth, was it?

No matter. He’d done such a thing before. Still he didn’t want to hurt the boy - so he decided to go for the harmless and sweet route. 

He began calmly, “I’m not sure if you remember me - “

“Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Anakin interrupted with a snap. “Qui-Gon Jinn’s Apprentice. I remember you,”

But the name was new and awkward on his tongue - at the very least, Anakin had probably never known his name. Kept from his knowledge just as the Jedi were kept from him. Not that Obi-Wan could blame them. If he was trying to keep the kid from seeking out the Jedi, then telling him very few things about his situation was best. Not like a former-slave would know what questions to ask. He felt anger on behalf of that kid that Anakin had once been. He could still remember how he looked. Trusting, wide blue eyes, sandy-blond hair, with an angelic face.

“Oh?” Obi-Wan said, instead of leading the conversation as he was so well known for. “What do you remember?”

Anakin narrowed his eyes and watched Obi-Wan wearily. It reminded Obi-Wan of a dog in the street, scared, but defiant. Snapping up trash like it was nectar of the gods and snarling at anyone who could ever do him wrong, perceived or truely.

Still, he was raised with a queen, and he wasn’t backing down from a fight.

“You came with Qui-Gon...” Anakin said. “When you visited Tatooine for the Hyperdrive,” 

Obi-Wan nodded. “Yes, I was there, but on the ship. I... I remember when Qui-Gon brought you back.” He smiled wryly. “I’ll admit, I wasn’t sold on you at the time.”

Anakin was still, all lean tense muscle. 

“You were... not pleased,”

“No, I was not,” Obi-Wan agreed, seeing no reason to lie. “But we’re not talking about me, we’re talking about you. Go on, please?”

“I freed myself,” And Obi-Wan was proud that the boy at least knew that much. That Qui-Gon had put their lives, the Queen’s life, every life on Naboo into the hands of a nine year old willing to try and free himself. But Anakin didn’t know what Obi-Wan thought, and continued. “and Qui-Gon promised he would train me. There was the battle... where I destroyed the ship. Then Master Qui-Gon got hurt...” He looked at Obi-Wan as if the man was about to bite him. “After the battle you both disappeared,”

Obi-Wan sighed. “All true, all true, except for one thing,”

Anakin narrowed angry eyes.

“Yeah? What?”

“Qui-Gon would not have been given leave to train you.”

The wind in his sails deflated.

_ “I _ was supposed to be your Master,”

That anger that had seemed so hungry was banked down to embers within seconds as the air was dragged from Anakin’s chest. Instead of anger, there was just confusion and hurt. Enough to drown in. The feeling curdled into even worse hurt, even more deeply felt anger, sharp and biting and childish.

“And?” Anakin snapped, trying to hide his hurt that he was projecting. Contempt curling around his lips. 

Obi-Wan realized that the kid thought he was mocking him. 

“I’m afraid that that is where things became...” Obi-Wan sneered thinking about the Council. “Well, best described as a shitshow.”

Anakin blinked, and his presence settled into some kind of neutral ground behind exhausted anger, confusion, weariness, and curiosity. A lot less hostile than when Obi-Wan had first stepped into view, that was for sure.

“You were to be my Padawan.” He announced. “You did not know it, but I promised I would train you.” 

Anakin startled.

“When I went to collect you, the Council had already sent you away,” Obi-Wan grimaced. “I was forbidden from contacting you because you were ‘where the Force wanted you to be’,”

Anakin’s mouth dropped. “Wait... what?”

“A lie, of course,” Obi-Wan assured. “It took me a few years to realize it, but when I did... I left. Not just for that, of course, there were many... glaring miscalculations, things that never added up, hypocrisy, the like. I left, ultimately, because of what happened to the both of us on Naboo.”

Anakin was quite for a moment. Only a moment. The kid could keep his mouth shut almost as well as he could stand still. Which was, not at all.

“Is that when you became a System Lord?”

“ _ Who _ says I’m a System Lord?” Obi-Wan flashed him a smile. “I’m just a simple merchant, who’s had amazing luck and assounding good fortune, who’s enemies _ just happen to s _ top breathing when I’ve left their general vicinity,”

Anakin snorted. “Right, and I’m the Prince of the Tatooine,” but he was chuckling.

It was a start, Obi-Wan thought. 

* * *

Anakin hadn’t been sure what to think of Obi-Wan when he’d appeared behind him and knew him by name. Him. Anakin Skywalker. The slave from tatooine who had been freed by his own hand and that of a Jedi Master. The Naboo people knew him, but that was because he had helped save their entire planet.

It was somehow different to be remembered by a once-Jedi Knight. A Knight that had wanted to train him...

Still furious, Anakin hadn’t held back, only for Obi-Wan to karking tell him he was  **right** , and  **justified** in his anger, and that - Anakin would hold these words in his chest till his dying day - he was fucking angry too. Anakin had felt it. There was a connection between them, and even though Anakin knew he was shielding, they they both were shielding. It was like scraps of sheer lace. Anakin could see it all, could feel all the man’s emotions. And hurt, angry, but pulled back just enough - that was Obi-Wan. 

And glad. So, so very glad. Like holiday had come early and he couldn’t believe his luck. Humor twined between the emotions, just like amusement, and the smallest drops of sadness.

It had taken the wind right out of his sails.

Now... now Anakin wasn’t actually sure what to do.

Talk was cheap, action was golden. Obi-Wan was doing very little than talking, and Anakin had seen it all before. Wearily, he closed off whatever hope he had started to kindle in his heart, smothering it.

“So,” Anakin stated, cocking his head. “Why did you seek me out? Just to tell me that? That we could have been a pair?”

“Jedi sentimentality,” Was what Obi-Wan responded with.

“Huhn?”

Obi-Wan chuckled. “Jedi Sentimentality. The will of the Force is the only will in the Galaxy, mumbo-jumbo,” He waved away the thought like a fly, “You’re putting words in my mouth. I came to put things right between us.” 

Anakin still wasn’t sure what he was getting at. 

Story time? It seemed beneath the man...

“And offer you that Apprenticeship, if you would still like it,”

_ Alright, yeah. No.  _ That wasn’t what Anakin had thought he was going to say. He blinked dumbly, realizing he hadn’t thought his wildest dream would really come true. A Jedi coming back for him. A Jedi... wanting him?

“You mean... you wouldn’t just, like, kidnap me?”

Obi-Wan fully laughed then.

“Stars no! Why would you think that?”

Anakin crossed his arms defensively and huffed. “Well, you freakin’ whispered to me  _ ‘Mine’,  _ what else was I supposed to think?”

Coughing, Anakin felt a wave of embarrassed and almost apologetic leanings. 

“That’s - not exactly - oh stars, you’re making this difficult, aren’t you?” Obi-Wan said, exasperated, but fond.  “I was thinking of you being my Apprentice. The one I was not allowed to have when I was a Jedi, but now I am my own being and am free from the Jedi. You are also free and allowed to do what you want,” He pointedly raised a brow. “You are also old enough to decide what it is you want,”

Anakin stared. He seemed unable to form words.

“I could not come for you after I left the Jedi, for a variety of reasons, but now seemed to be the right time,” Obi-Wan said. “That and this bond that seems to be forming between us...”

“Wait! So that wasn’t just you?” Anakin blurted. 

Obi-Wan chuckled. 

“Force, no. That’s not how bonds are formed, kid. This, what happened between us, is not how Bonds form. Ever. It’s... unheard of, really,” His eyes sparkled. Interest sparking. “Which is another reason we should completely and totally do this, you should join me. I can teach you all I know,”

Anakin wasn’t sure what he was feeling in that moment, but he was pretty sure he had never had anyone fight for him. Padme had been ready to, but who in their right mind would throw away a force-sensitive kid that had saved the planet? At least, not since Qui-Gon Jinn... But he didn’t count, did he now? If you fight for something, and then just let it go - did you even fight at all?

As he opened his mouth to answer, there was a wildly untamed noise behind him. It sounded like a wild animal tramping through the garden.

“Skywalker!” 

Anakin turned and watched as a Nubian soldier, Eric, whom Skywalker knew well enough, burst through the garden bushes. 

“Skywalker! The Senator’s been kidnapped!” 


	7. Alternatives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Padme is gone, Anakin is treated like a child, and Obi-Wan makes his move.  
> All while Padme finally has a conversation with her captor that ends... unexpectedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Uh. Wow. I haven't updated this in a LOOOoooonnnggg time. No reason for it either, I had it written, I just haven't had the time to edit and post.  
> SORRY! Just for my stupidity I am going to try and get the next chapter out too.

The entire world froze. Eric breathed hard, before Anakin could even wrap his mind around the situation he was turning from Obi-Wan.

“What? How? When?” Anakin opened his connection with the Force that he had locked down tight around Obi-Wan. Reaching out with a heavy hand, he searched for that one connect he had unashamedly allowed himself. Padme.

Eric shook his head. “It just happened! There was a group of them. They stunned her guards and chartered her away in broad daylight!” He snarled, dragging a hair through his short cropped dark hair. “We’re hoping they haven’t gotten off planet yet, but we need your help...”

He turned beseeching eyes on the ex-slave.

“Tell me you can sense her on the planet...?”

Anakin felt himself go cold and still all at once. Padme was missing. The Guard was asking for him to help. He reached out, perhaps a little heavy handed, for the general feeling of the light of his life. She was a bright beam of starburst, and in the Force, it showed. With a frown, he focused on trying to find that budding light, faint or strong, and felt sweat start to prickle at his neck as he realized he  _ couldn’t _ .

Anakin was many things. Arrogant, roguish, and untamed: but he wasn’t a liar. He knew what he was, and a failure wasn’t it. So when he came up empty handed, he opened his eyes wide in shock.

His whole purpose as a bodyguard, the only trained-Force-Sensitive in the Guard, and he was pulling up weeds.

“ _ Blast _ ,” Anakin told Eric, eyes snapping open. “I can’t sense her.” 

_ Which meant she was either dead, which is not a possibility or...  or she’s...  _

The Soldier wilted, face falling.

_ Or she’s not on the planet. _

Anakin turned away, ashamed.

“Dammit!” Before Eric turned back around, knowing what he had to do. There were protocoles for this kind of thing. “We’ll scramble the fleet. You stay here, Anakin, you’re not cleared for search and rescue.” Before the younger man could protest, Eric held up a hand. “If we need you, we’ll call for you.” He looked exhausted, already at the prospect, “And only the goddess herself knows if we just may end up calling on you...”

Anakin was about to retort and say he that he most certainly was cleared for any mission that was Padme centric - Eric was gone. Turning away and hurrying back to his duty.

“We’ll call you, Anakin! Stay here!”

 

* * *

Padme is gone. Padme is gone and it’s all his fault. He should have been there with her, as her guard, as her protector. But instead he had been running away from the ex-Jedi, Kenobi. He’d been pulled in by his charm and his wit and his willingness to... well it didn’t matter. Training was off the table now! He had to go and save his best friend! And Kenobi would just have to deal with that - 

Kenobi was standing next to him at this very second.

“Blast it all!” Anakin exclaimed, as he took off towards the rest of the guard. He paid attention to exactly nothing as he flew towards the palace. He didn’t notice if Obi-Wan followed or not. Once he reached the palace, he stopped short. The chaos outside the palace gates was palpable. Half of the guard were unconscious or sitting on the ground getting their bearings back and being seen to by the medic teams on hand, while the other half searching for where the Senator and her kidnapper her disappeared to. It was a wild goose chase, even Anakin knew that. If the kidnappers had the ball bearings to snatch a woman in broad daylight, they had to be pretty sure they were gonna get away with it.

Before Anakin could get farther than into the palace gates to see exactly what was happening, Obi-Wan grabbed his arm. The ex-Jedi had followed him all the way, it seemed, but now he was stopping him. Anakin whirled around, anger and frustration and dismay in every line of his body.

“What?” He snapped.

Obi-Wan raised a perfectly arched brow. “Anakin,”

Anakin didn’t have any patience for a word more out of the man’s mouth.

“Padme’s been kidnapped,” Anakin spat. “I don’t have time for this right now - “

“I’m not trying to discuss  _ that _ , Anakin,” He looked more annoyed than he had looked any other emotion so far. “We have plenty of time in the future to discuss employment with me - no, I am here to offer my help in the search,”

Anakin fell silent. Freezing completely. 

“Oh.”

* * *

This is not the first kidnapping case he had ever handled. It’s just... Not. As a Jedi, as he had been Knighted for two years before leaving the Order, he had helped almost a hundred planets with a variety of negotiations, finding their lost dignitaries, as well as foiling evil, villainous plots. Kidnappings had been easy. Most of the time there was money to be exchanged at a set location, the kidnapped person being returned, and then eventually the evil-doer being found.

Or so everyone had thought.

Obi-Wan, now a rather proficient criminal by Republic standards, knew personally that only five out of the dozens of cases he had closed on a multitude of planets, had actually gotten the right man or woman. There were fall-guys, there was innocent bystanders, and it was standard practice to pay someone off to go to prison for oneself.

This kidnapping, unfortunately, was going to fall under the category of: he actually cared what happened to the person. Padme was a proponent against most of the utter garbage of the universe, and actually  **winning** . She was stubborn, cool in the face of danger, and one of his personal biggest fans - because for some reason she actually believed all the lies he spread about being a mild-mannered merchant. She backed him in the senate, too, one of the very few he didn’t have to bribe. 

It was in Obi-Wan’s best interest to help find her and keep her alive and well.

And if it helped cement to Anakin that he was a very passionate and loyal person... well, two birds, one stone, eh?

“Yes, Anakin, now come,” He said, yanking, very gently to get him moving. Then he let go and turned around. Without waiting for him to follow, nor looking behind him, Obi-Wan set off and reached for his comm. unit. He quickly dialed in his Nubian General, Rex, and waited for him to answer, never stopping.

“Sir?” Rex said, voice rough, like he’d just been woken up. “Is the party over? I thought it would be - “

“Senator Amidala has been kidnapped,”

The man on the other end of the line fell silent. Unlike Anakin, the man knew they had quite a few high stake campaigns riding on the Nubian Senator. As well as having his Boss’ respect.

“Orders?”

“Get our Splicers, as well as the core Searchers, on it,” Obi-Wan looked over his shoulder to see that Skywalker was, in fact, following. “And let my crew know I am on the way. With guest.”

“Roger, roger,” Rex said, and then the line clicked.

Obi-Wan always appreciated that fact that the man didn’t need his hand held to get things done. He turned his head to look at Anakin. He was still so young. Just eighteen. Granted as a Padawan, eighteen year old Obi-Wan Kenobi had been a terror, strong, trained, as well as especially gifted with a sharp tongue. But this was Skywalker.

The kid that the Force adored.

He didn’t look like a threat with his eyes wide, and his lip bitten between his teeth. Hand worriedly tugging on a loose string at his hem. He looked even younger than eighteen. Which made sense... Padme was probably his only family, and unlike the Jedi, he had never been discouraged from forming attachments. What Obi-Wan could see, he formed attachments and connection as he breathed. A good thing for Kenobi, who felt the blossoming in his chest and being of a Force connection. Bad for a Jedi, which Anakin would never, ever be.

“I’ve got my people on it,” Obi-Wan informed him. “I am going to my ship to meet up with them,”

“Good, thank you. That - that will help... The Guards will appreciate it... probably,” Anakin said, stumbling over his words. Obi-Wan looked at him, wondering if he was really that dense or just in shock.

“Would you like to come?”

The younger man blinked. 

“What?”

As if he hadn’t heard a thing.

With a sigh, Obi-Wan decided to make it as plain as he could.

“Would you, Anakin Skywalker, like to come with me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, on my ship while I find our lost former-queen, Padme Amidala?”

Anakin hestated. 

“The Naboo Guard can not do anything more without Permission from the Senate,” Obi-Wan told him, trying to go for aloof, and Jedi. He had that down pat. It was just another mask to him, after all. The best one he knew. “That can take anywhere from twelve to twenty hours. I’m offering immediate action, Anakin,”

Granted, Anakin was young, but he wasn’t born yesterday. He knew how the world world. And even in shock, he managed to straighten himself up. Every bit the former-slave people probably forgot him as.

“What’s the catch?”

Obi-Wan laughed, a short barking laugh. 

After everything, he could still think Obi-Wan didn’t owe him something already?

“For you, Anakin, and for the Senator - I don’t need anything. Just the pleasure of outsmarting this son-of-a-bitch,”

Anakin relaxed. A curious response. But then again, not raised by the Jedi, so he would of course never have the dogma of ‘revenge = bad’ being shoved down his throat. It took a year for Obi-Wan to really overcome that aspect of his personality, but once he overcame it - Well. There was a reason his people didn’t rat him out. 

Jedi were loyal, unflinching in the face of danger, and ridiculously powerful to boot. Everyone knew not to mess with a Jedi. Now, a Jedi that had left behind the Jedi Order? Nobody knew how to handle them. Were they still as loyal? Were they still as drawn to danger? Did they kill? Who did they kill? What did they believe? 

They were still powerful beings, but now they were free to do whatever they wanted. 

And that made them the most dangerous people in the room at any given moment.

Obi-Wan, to his people, was as Jedi as they came.

With everyone else...

Well, there was a reason most of his enemies were not alive to speak about him. Good or bad. He smiled, sharky and predatory, as he waited for Anakin to decide.

Anakin waited, but he was aware of the situation. Padme didn’t have time for him to waffle.

“Alright, I’ll come,”

As if anything else was an option.

* * *

“You know,” Padme said, tied to a chair, hair a birds nest, and one of her sleeves missing. Scratches and the like littered her body, under and outside her clothes. All over her skin. After she had woken up unbound she had gave a good fight, but she had lost and was now tied up tight. “You really should think of redecorating,”

The being who had kidnapped her didn’t respond, just leaned back in his chair, hood pulled low but not low enough that Padme didn’t catch the faintest glimpse of a red chin, with black ink tattooed along the lower half of its face. His arms were crossed, looking bored.

She sighed. 

“What on earth are you hoping to get out of this, anyway?” She asked, shrewdly, looking around at the old moldy warehouse she now found herself in. It was bad, but nowhere would ever be as bad as Tatooine. “You can’t imagine my people would actually pay for my ransom, do you?”

Which just reminded her of Ani.

_ Oh Ani,  _ Padme thought to herself, remembering how she had left him. Basically at the mercy of the pirate Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Her brother in all but blood. Soulmates, they were. Brought together by fate and circumstance and the Force. Padme had taken him into her house, under her wing, and had never, not once, looked back. Not when at fourteen the Jedi had come back, wanting to test him and speak to him. Qui-Gon Jinn looking shocked and saddened to be turned away. Anakin had never been told. Not when at sixteen, he’d wanted to begin truly training to be her guard, not just with the Master she had found him, but with the other’s in her garrison. Useful, contributing to the household.

It was his way. Forcefully helpful, willing to do anything to stay at the side of those he cared for, willing to do anything for those few people who had claimed him as surely as he had claimed them.

“He will come.” A raspy voice interrupted Padme’s thoughts. She jerked her head up to see the being’s face was no longer turned towards the one unbroken window to the left. The shadows he cast were long and menacing looking. Padme waited for him to say more.

He only muttered quietly, nearly silent, to himself.

Padme was almost scared to poke and prod a being who was as unstable to be talking to themselves with their prisoner mere feet away. It did not speak of a mentally well person...

“Who will come?” She finally asked, after long minutes gaining no other information.

Slowly, that head turned. A flash of teeth, sharp pointy things hidden behind the cowl. Eyes that glowed like the sun, bright, but somehow neaseauting. 

“The fucking Jedi who killed me,”

Seeing as Padme knows exactly one Jedi that would somehow involve her in a mad plot, Qui-Gon fucking Jinn, she thinks, perhaps, her kidnapper is onto something.

“Qui-Gon Jinn?” She asked.

“I’m going to kill him,” The being says, all fervent craziness. And Padme feels for him. She’s had her fair share of Jedi’s meddling in other people's business. True, she owed them a great deal, but there were some things that couldn't be forgiven. And breaking a child’s heart was one of them... 

Maybe a message needed to be sent.

“Huh,” She said. “Want help?”


	8. Away away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin meets the crew. Obi-Wan teaches Anakin how to search the universe.  
> (which may or may not just be another way for Obi-Wan to seduce Anakin to his side)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm watching superstore right now as I edit this and am losing my got-dang mind! xD   
> Soooo, hope you guys enjoy this super random chapter! Two more left after this!  
> This chapter is rated because if Obi-Wan and Anakin don't mind-meld in my stories, are they even my stories???

“This is your ship?” Anakin asked, eyes as wide as saucers as he appreciatively traced the smooth, taunt edges of the spacecraft with his eyes. “Holy Guide of the Unmaker. Is this a ST Class 4500 Star Driver?”

Obi-Wan could feel the man’s awe in the Force. A bright, undimmed or tarnished, light that shone brighter than he’d ever seen. It was pure, in a way, that no Jedi ever could be. Untaught, he had a wildness to him, that was feral and snarling, but beautiful all the same. Pure.

“It is,” Obi-Wan answered, after Anakin had gotten his fill of looking at the wonder, at the eyes tracing his ship looking for a flaw. “Won it off an outer-rim smuggler,”

“Where’d he get it?”

“You know? I never asked,”

Anakin looked at him then, raised brow, curious. At Obi-Wan’s placid, completely guileless expression, it clicked what he was saying. A smuggler, with a ship this nice? It must have been stolen... except clearly it was docked here, so the papers were good. He turned the idea over in his head, until he decided it wasn’t worth pursuing this line of questioning.

After all, it wasn’t like he had a ship as nice as this.

“So...”

“Come along,” Obi-Wan bid, stepping past him to walk up the gangplank. “I would like you to meet my men,”

His men were made up of five of the most brilliant, if unconventional, once-mercenaries-for-hire around.  Once for hire, because now they were on Obi-Wan’s payroll and Kenobi was nothing if not exclusive. He had two Quarren, twins, a female and male, that went by the names of Andromadeas and Fritoto; they were the best at both searching for information as well as aggregating it. Their information net boasted a wider reach than the Republics. A human who was once known by the name of Tobias of House Harbingers of the ancient and noble planet Mandalore, but who now went by the name of Rex, with the quickest draw this side of the galaxy. Norium, the Drall, who was brilliant but not allowed on most planets beginning with the letter Y. And last, but not least, his most prized of all his stolen people: 0-0-7, his assassin droid. Each of them were as loyal to him as he was to them. Each of them he had had to battle for, to win their trust, their regard, and even themselves. 

Anakin wasn’t his first acquisition, after all.

“Gentlemen,” Obi-Wan greeted his crew as he came aboard his ship. “We’ve a senator to find.”

“Sir,” Rex said, his mouth pulling into a lazy smile. “Thought you’d appreciate a glimpse of what went down about two hours ago?”

Obi-Wan smiled broadly. Anakin blinked at them.

“You Spliced the Security Tape?”

Norium turned to him with a hum in the force, happiness, but no smile. “Pah! Nubian security, no problem.”

“Who is the human?” 007 asked. “I have no record of you bringing him here before, ser.”

“Seconded,” Andromadeas said, looking at Anakin with shrewd eyes.

“This is Anakin Skywalker,” Obi-Wan introduced him. “And he is to be treated as a guest, with  _ potential  _ for future employment,”

Everyone on the ship perked up at that. Obi-Wan was known to only take the best, the brightest, and none of them were as young as the kid in front of them. Though, with youth, came more opportunity for the growth of true loyalty. Seeing as how the young human was also dressed in the usual, standard Nubian guard uniform it was easy to deduce that Obi-Wan was trying to pilfer talent from the locals.

“Got it, sir,” They all chorused in one way or another, keeping half a mind on the newest person in their midst.

Obi-Wan smirked, knowing them so well.

“Good, now, what’s this about the security tape?”

* * *

Obi-Wan and Anakin watched the security tape of Padme’s kidnapping. Broad daylight, in the middle of a festival, kidnapping. It was unheard of. Not to mention completely and utterly stupid. Anakin forced himself to stop dwelling on the rage in his heart and to focus on the screen.

It showed Padme and her entourage chatting in a circle with a few other senators, political people of importance in the galaxy, as well as the Chancellor himself. Anakin’s brows raised quizzically at that.

The chancellor had been there, a perfect target, and yet... Not the one taken.

Chancellor Palpatine was... an odd bird, Anakin thought. He was always extremely nice and kind to Anakin himself, but there was something off to him. Anakin knew the feeling of people using him, of finding him useful, but that wasn’t exactly how the Chancellor felt. Perhaps he really was an kind of grandfatherly figure like Padme claimed, but Anakin had never met a grandfather, so he was going to have to trust her on that.

Obi-Wan sped the tape forward until a blurr of darkness darted forward into the circle, as if it had leapt from the very shadows of the wall itself. Slowing it down, Obi-Wan and Anakin both leaned forward, shoulders touching, to watch the event happen.

Padme was no match for the being. For it was just one being. Cloaked in darkness, not a single color other than black sprouting, the man took down her guard with precie, quick movements. Trained, agile, and without hesitation. Six guards fell to the being, and then he turned to Padme.

Anakin felt sick.

Padme’s face was pixelated, but firm as she took her blaster out of her sleeve and jerked it forward to blast the son-of-a-sarlacc off the planet. Anakin smiled, baring his teeth in pride at her quick thinking. Only she didn’t get that far. Her hand jerked up, and up and up, until it was over her head - and then the blaster was yanked from her and thrown off into the distance. Invisible hands controlling.

Obi-Wan’s breath hitched. Anakin felt his mouth drop open. 

They both knew what that meant.

The being, the man, the kidnapper was force-sensitive just like them.

Trained, just like Obi-Wan.

Their eyes met.

_ Dangerous _ , they both thought, privately,  _ just like them. _

“Well,” Obi-Wan stated as they watched the being knock Padme unconscious, throw her over a shoulder, and then flee into the palace of Theed. The entire thing had taken, perhaps more or less, eight minutes. Backup didn’t show up for another two.

“That was unexpected,”

“You pffing think?” Anakin snarled, feeling light headed and weak hearted. “Padme was just kidnapped by some- some- “ He couldn’t even think of a word for someone who wasn’t a Jedi, who wasn’t a good person, who had the Force and used it for their own gain, like Anakin could, but wouldn’t.

A Force-sensitive had taken her. Someone who could feel the Force, like he could, had grabbed her and run off. All while he had been playing run-around with the ex-Jedi who was intent on being his Master. It was like his worst nightmare come true. Except, with far, far less Qui-Gon Jinn.

“Language,” Obi-Wan tsked at him as he leaned forward, messing with the controls to rewind the video and watch it all over again. “That won’t help Senator Amidala now, will it?”

Anakin was about to snap back, but then Obi-Wan was pressing back, playing a clip over and over. It was when the man had grabbed the blaster in her hand and yanked it. His hand out, barely outside of his long black robe. 

The man’s hand was red.

It was the first clue they had.

It wouldn’t be the last.

* * *

For nearly four hours, Anakin and Obi-Wan watched the footage for any sign of a clue to either the kidnappers identity or to where the kidnapper could possibly be going, or just any clue. 

They were rewarded for their efforts with... very little.

The being was red, at least on the hands, tall, nearly two meters. Trained in a aggressive form of combat. Anakin thought it was Kartka, from the Outer Rim, it certainly had the flashy dance like quality. Obi-Wan claimed it was a mix of Jedi trained saber-fighting-styles, Juyo and Jarkar. The hood on it’s head stayed put, but it seemed to have horns, or at least protrudes around it’s head, narrowing down it’s species pool. 

Anakin thought a Zebrak or a being he had never encountered, while Obi-Wan thought it could be some human. Neither managed to actually convince the other. Still, it gives them something to do as the others of the crew work non-stop to find Padme and her kidnapped. 

The crew were... well, they were certainly interesting. Obi-Wan left to take a private call, and Anakin tried to understand the crew better.

Anakin was personally most interested in the droid, 007, but said droid wanted nothing to do with him. He’d never seen a droid like him, all long limbs and big head, but with a quickness to him that his scrap heap C-3PO. And he knew nearly as many languages!

It was amazing, if Anakin was being honest. And yet, when he’d spoken to the droid, a simple sentence, the blank stare he had gotten was almost enough to make him flinch away. Doubly so when he said. 

“I could buy and sell you.”

Ouch, Anakin thought to himself with wide eyes and gaping mouth as 007 about turned and walked out of the hull.

“He’s not interested,” Andromadeas said, leaning back as his twin continued their work without him. “007 doesn’t like humans much,”

“Except Kenobi,” the rest of the crew echoed in practiced synchronism.

“I could tell...” Anakin’s lips twitched. “Practice much?”

“We spend a lot of time together,” Drall defended, in a huff. “You learn about a person trapped in a small craft for days on end.”

It was then that Obi-Wan returned, and everyone returned back to serious, and simple. Anakin almost missed it.

_ It’s.... different _ , Anakin decides as he watches Obi-Wan’s crew work like a well oiled machine. Not a squeak, not a complaint, not a misfire. It’s all just kosher. And he never thought he would see a machine that ran better than the Palace Guards, but here it is.

Perhaps it’s because they all choose this life, day after day after day, that makes them different than the Noble Naboo Guard. Maybe it’s the way they trained, or the way they live, fast and wild and as if every second could be their last. Whatever it is, Anakin can only faintly remember seeing it on Tatooine.

But seeing and living are two seperate, very different things.

Smugglers, drug dealers, slavers, and the like had a different kind of moral code than normal people. As a slave (former-slave), Anakin knew exactly how that worked. Sometimes you stole to survive, sometimes you stole to be a fucking dick to the people who liked to punish first and ask questions later, sometimes you spat in the face of your Master hoping that this time, they’d just shoot you. It’s a game of give and take, only the world just keeps taking and taking and taking, no matter if your in a position to give.

It’s one thing he could never quite explain to Padme, nor had he ever really felt the need to. Safety was an illusion, and never had Anakin felt safer than with people who understood that. People who threw their lives away... Anakin could understand them.

It was all they had, so why not throw it away?

Everyone else already had, after all... 

Anakin watched as Obi-Wan existed in this space, like some kind of marauder, or mimic. He played the part, but he was above it all, too. Raised as a Jedi, raised to be better, do better, become better. Loyal to the ideal of lightness, but brought low and away from the people he served by not greed, nor lust of power, nor anything as plebian as that, but because something had broken in the machine he had worked in.

Obi-Wan laughed at something one of the crew said. Threw his head back and barked a laugh, like they weren’t just now racing to find Padme before something unspeakable happened. Yet, he was laughing.

Anakin realized, Padme couldn’t be in better hands.

He closed his eyes, uncomfortable with what he was about to do but feeling... more settled in his mind he tried again to reach out for Padme in the Force. Though he didn’t exactly trust the Jedi-turned-criminal-boss, Anakin was content with Obi-Wan and his band of misfits would keep his physical body safe.

* * *

Obi-Wan felt the moment that Anakin physically ignored reality to focus solely on the limitless world of the spiritual, of the Force. Rex had been saying something to him, unimportant now, as his head whirled around with a snap to see Anakin sitting cross-legged, like a youngling in class, back straight, breath coming in slow, even, shallow breaths.

Except he’d never been trained as a Jedi Youngling.

“Sir?”

He held up a finger to request silence as he focused his contained power on the brightest being the Force had ever allowed to cross his path.

Anakin was a bombshell. Power, and wildness, and feral, and any number of things. Like a ball of glowing bright yarn that had been twisted up and around, inside itself and out, creating a tangled mess. The Jedi would have straightened him out, or at least smoothed him a bit, but they hadn’t. And so he just blazed, like a fire that was fed too much, and too often.

This was the first time Obi-Wan was seeing Anakin relaxed.

No, Obi-Wan realized with a frown bordering on something that could be a fond look. This wasn’t Anakin relaxed. This was Anakin  _ still _ .   
He was, as always, glorious, but there was a tameness to him. Calm, even. A flash flood had to settle sometime. A forest fire eventually ran out of woods. A scream must eventually trail off when breath is short.

And as all things ended, Anakin took a break from the constant worry, the constant movement, and stilled.

Obi-Wan had seen potential, but now he saw the future.

The vision he had gotten when he’d first laid eyes on the boy started to make sense. Back to back, together, unstoppable. Training plans came to him, how to smooth out Anakin’s rough edges, so he was no longer raw diamond but as sharp and cutting as any crystal. How to get him to sit still long enough to meditate, to settle himself in the Force, to just be. How to use him, how to make him useful to his organization. There was no real malicious thought behind his manipulations, but they would be manipulations.

Because, whether Obi-Wan liked it or not, Anakin belonged to the people of Naboo more than to him. It was a link that either had to be broken, or had to be superseded. There were numerous ways to do so, but Kenobi much prefereded the Jedi way:

Loyalty first, loyalty always, loyalty forever to the cause.

Except the cause was him, not the Jedi, and Anakin was to be his apprentice, his right hand, not his Padawan, a step above a servant who would beg at his feet. Anakin should never beg like some Force-Null nothing. He should be humbled, of course, by Obi-Wan’s power, and prestige. With the way Obi-Wan had knowledge to present to Anakin as a gift, not as a trickle from a stream, he knew it wouldn’t be hard.

Obi-Wan had known potential, but he hadn’t known there was  **more** . 

And as he had never allowed himself as a Jedi, he coveted and he jealously planned to make Anakin his.

* * *

 

_ Nothing _ , Anakin sighed, impatient and angry at himself unaware of Obi-Wan’s planning but very aware of his gaze. He’d stretched his senses as far as they could go, to the nearest star system and back, looking for that unique light that he had memorized so it was the backdrop to his sleepless nights. He was looking for a needle in a haystack, but he knew that needle like no other knew that needle. 

Didn’t that count for anything?

“Nothing?” Obi-Wan questioned, from where he had taken up watching Anakin’s physical body for signs of life. Well and to plan, but Anakin didn’t need to know that.

“Nothing.” Anakin admitted, shoulders slumping. “ Pfassk , I can’t find her!”

“Hmmm,” Obi-wan started to approach him. “You can hardly blame yourself Anakin. You lack much of the training it takes to search for a life form that is not within the bounds of a planet.”

“Hey!”

Obi-Wan plopped into a meditative pose. “I’m not saying you aren’t powerful, or impressive, you just lack the fineness to use your overwhelming power,” He straightened, settled his wrists on his knees, and took a deep breath. “Come, let me show you,”

“... How?” Anakin asked, feeling stupid. Aki had been a great mentor, but he had lacked a lot of the artistry that the Jedi had. And the hundred of opportunities to practice and train, lost to Anakin.

“Breath, and reach for me,”

“How does this work?” Anakin frowned, but closed his eyes, feeling the Force around him hug them both close. Reaching in the Force was something he did instinctively, and rarely did he have to control that part of himself. This would be... interesting. “I mean... I’ve never been able to touch someone else on purpose,”

“We have the beginnings of a bond, Anakin, darling,” Obi-Wan’s lips pulled up into a smile. He closed his eyes and breathed. Anakin breathed with him. “It should be as easy as. One. Two.”

Within their minds, connected, the letter, the number  _ ‘three’  _ echoed. Anakin’s breath caught in his chest. It was like the most intimate form of a hug. He felt close, umberably close to Obi-Wan. Anakin knew he was Anakin, but it was hard to not be Obi-Wan, too. 

_ :Whoah: _

_ :Astute, as always,: _

_ :How did - what is - I can’t -: _ Anakin was used to being ineloquent, this was a new level. 

_ :I used to do this with my Master,:  _ Obi-Wan said, leading him, gently, to stretch their combined senses. : _ To touch the world, you have to work at it. The farther you want to stretch, the longer you must work at it. This is a certain... work around. Masters and Padawans can share. The Padawan sacrifices privacy and intimacy for practice and wisdom.: _

And then, Obi-Wan showed Anakin exactly how far he could stretch himself.

_ Holy. Karking. Shit. _

Anakin had seen the universe, metaphorically speaking, since he was a child. It was easy for him. It came to him as easy as breathing. But he had never been able to zoom in on individual parts of the galaxy. Like he was a telescope, and the world was just waiting to tell all its secrets. Obi-Wan allowed his reach to extend to the far edges of the galaxy, and Anakin saw, for the first time since he had left the planet; Tatooine. 

He could feel the planets heartbeat. Could feel the wind of the rotation, of the galaxy, as it interacted with each other. The push, the pull, the spinning, the aching, the fluttering of emotions.

And yet...

And yet...

Anakin couldn’t reach Padme. 

For a single moment, one he regretted afterwards, and that he was sure that Obi-Wan heard: 

He didn’t care.

* * *

Obi-Wan, privately thought to himself in the only hidden part he had from Anakin through sheer force of will and decades of practice and experience:

Jackpot.


	9. The... Rescue?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan and Anakin try and find Padme. In a turn of events, Rex finds the lead they needed.  
> What they find is... well... not an easy pill to swallow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the length. I have been trying to beef this chapter up with more little moments between Obi-Wan and Anakin but ugh. It's just so HARD.

Anakin was pacing. Again. He couldn’t help it, honestly. He hadn’t been in a small shuttle for almost a year, and certainly not one filled with so many people in such small quarters. Trapped. He felt a little trapped. He also didn’t do well with waiting, and waiting was all they had. Even after Obi-Wan and he had reached out, they hadn’t found Padme. Not even a hint of her. 

It had been almost a whole day, and they had yet to drift from the Naboo airspace, and Anakin was beginning to worry ceaselessly that they  _ wouldn’t _ .

“Almost done with those records, Rex?” 

“Yes, ser,” Rex acknowledged Obi-Wan. “Nothing suspicious within a four hours time, I’m going back farther but it’s going to take some time.”

Obi-Wan patted his shoulder. “I trust you’ll find the discrepancies that exist,” Then he turned to everyone else in turn and inquired over their progress. Which was very small, almost non-existent. Anakin watched how he was uniquely charming with each one, but not overtly the same. Like he cared about his people.

Sometimes that still felt like a foreign concept to Anakin. Caring. From those in power, anyway. Those with power, were rarely like Padme. They didn’t care, they didn’t try to care, nor did they really do a good job of being sneaky about it either. Not to those under them.

Unlike Padme... and perhaps Obi-Wan.

Anakin shouldn’t be surprised, really, but... sometimes the Force could be misleading. When he had been with Mistress Gardulla, the Force only occasionally informed him of her cruelty. Nor had it warned him of Qui-Gon Jinn and how badly that would scar him. It was unreliable when he became... close and hopeful with a person. His own feelings muddled the Force.

The only one who had not betrayed that closeness was Padme.

And buddingly, Kenobi. The man was one with the Force, and it seemed as if Anakin was more intuned with him because of that simple fact. Occasionally the Force flashed a warning, but Anakin would then observe the man steel himself and mentally go to battle. He used words like others used swords. He used charm like others used poison. He was not violent, not really. 

He could be. 

He just wasn’t.

And Jedi trained, Anakin knew he had the power to make his requests into demands that  **would** be followed.

Still, it was hard to be weary when Obi-Wan was so good natured, when their souls seemed to sing at how close they were. When the Force itself wanted them to be together, to be a team.

The Team, it seemed to sing, as if there was a path they were always destined for. They’d been off track for so long and the Force was happy to have them back together. To have them moving in the direction it had put them on. It sizzled against his senses, a smoothing of his rumples. This was right.

And that fucking terrified him.

Anakin sighed and waited for Kenobi to circle back to him. To give him a pep-talk too.

_ What did it mean that he already had him pegged for that?  _

_ That he already knew Kenobi so well that he could tell his actions before he even thought to do them? _

Kenobi came over to him. On schedule. Like clockwork. Anakin almost smiled. Kenobi didn’t hold his own smile in as he settled next to him.

“I know it doesn’t look like it,” The older man stated confidently. “But we really are making progress. My men are the best, and Amidala is important to her planet. If we don’t find her, they will.”

“You really think you’ll find something before the entire planet of Naboo?” 

It was interesting to watch Obi-Wan. Especially as he relaxed back, completely calm. He had a quiet surety to him that Anakin felt compelling. He didn’t like to trust people, he didn’t even like using the word ‘trust’ but there was just something about Obi-Wan. Confidence. 

“I’m sure of it.”

Anakin wasn’t sure he believed it, but he did let them get on with it without wanting to get up and hover.

* * *

Obi-Wan spent equal time with his crew and with Anakin. The later needed a lot of time, honestly.

He was a mess. Trying, and failing, to meditate and reach out for Padme in the Force only lead to him moping around. If he wasn’t meditating, he was moping and sad and clingy. But clingy in the way a cat would be. Still in the same room, but nose snubbing the other person in the room. He tried to be unaffected, but he went to seek out Obi-Wan at every opportunity.

It was... cute. And endearing.

Obi-Wan let him think it was working, and only went over to chat with him, to give him a pep talk, after at least five minutes had passed. 

“She’ll be fine, Anakin,” Obi-Wan stated with confidence he had learned to fake young as a Padawan at his Master’s side. “We will find her,”

“How can you know that?”

Obi-Wan reached out to lay a hand on his arm. Anakin didn’t melt, but he certainly unclenched. It was a curious and pleasing response. 

“Because anything else is ludacris.” He smirked. “And I have yet to lose a hunt,”

Especially the hunt of Anakin.

* * *

####  It was a fluke. That’s how it began, and that’s how it ends. 

“Found it!” Rex exclaimed with a fist bump into the air. He wore a bright smile of triumph, eyes glittering.  Anakin was the first on his feet. Obi-Wan close behind. Turning to Anakin and Obi-Wan, Rex pointed to the screen.

“What did you find?” Anakin asked, hopeful. “What is it?”

On the screen was a registry of ships that had come and gone from Naboo within the last twelve days. The name that was highlighted was Elias the Knick, from the planet of Orasnia, and he was piloting a Nubian style Starship. Anakin cocked his head to the side confused, but Obi-Wan's face lit up with a grin. 

“That sly Nardark,” Obi-Wan said with a chuckle.

“I know, sir, I almost didn’t catch it,” 

Anakin feeling left behind snapped “Wait, what? What is it?”

Obi-Wan sensing Anakin's ire explained. “Elias the Nick was the name of a traitor I had the misfortune of encountering.” 

“Was?” Anakin asked, 

“Was,” Obi-Wan confirmed “He was killed shortly there-after our meeting. What a shame...” Anakin could tell it wasn’t a shame. Obi-Wan hadn’t cared much for the man. “Which is how I know for a fact that the man is dead and in no shape to pilot a Starship. In fact, whoever is piloting that Starship is probably the kidnapper,”

Anakin narrowed his eyes. and asked, “How can you be so sure he’s really dead?” If there was one thing Anakin knew, money could make anything happen.

Obi-Wan snorted and finally looked at Anakin. 

“Probably because I was the one who killed him.”

Anakin’s mouth dropped.

“And as far as I know the authorities haven't recovered his body,” There Obi-Wan went again, stroking his beard, “Nor will they.”

Rex continued clicking and typing on the keyboard pulling up windows and registries and more information than Anakin could follow. Yet, Anakin knew exactly what the final document that Rex pulled up was. It was the manifest that all ships docking on Naboo required to fill out.  This one was for the Nubian Starship but Elias had apparently been piloting. And it stated that it had come from a planet called Mustafar. 

“Mustafar, hmmm,” Obi-Wan said stroking his beard. “What an odd planet...”

“Why?” asked Anakin “What's on Mustafar that's so interesting?”

Obi-Wan and Rex shared a glance.

Rex was the one who answered.

“That's just the thing, kid,” Rex frowned thoughtfully. “Mustafar, doesn't have anything that anyone would want. It's a lava planet as close to a sun as a planet can be without committing all the way. It’s sole export is heat.”

Anakin felt his heart sped up. Yes!

“That's got to be it!” Anakin said excited that they finally had a lead after only 4 hours of searching. “This is it! This is what we’ve waited for!” 

Obi-Wan shared on open tooth smile with the younger man. The force was magnetic around them. It was a good thing they were the only two for sensitives around or else they might have had to explain a few things. As it was they were the only two around and so nobody else noticed. 

“Let's go save ourselves a senator,”

Anakin agreed wholeheartedly as Rex  keyed in the planet Mustafar and they were on their way.

Padme was practically rescued!

They left then, following a trail like a bloodhound, Rex’s eyes never moving from the monitor. It only took a few hours for Rex to exclaim:  

“We’ve got a lock, sir!” 

Anakin had his eyes shut, and was reaching out, trying to find the thread in the Force that would lead them to Padme. The Force, after all, was much better than just any old machine. Or Rex. 

.... Anakin privately apologized to all the droids he knew as he continued to stretch his senses, trying to find that budding light that was Padme. A hand came and clapped onto his shoulder, almost jerking him back to reality, but the weight wasn’t throwing him off. In fact, it was... helping.

Centering himself, ignoring but too aware of the hand on his shoulder, Anakin reached farther than he ever had before. With spindly fingers made of nothing but his will, he reached. And reached. And reached. And - 

And there she was.

“She’s safe,” Anakin breathed, dumbfounded, his entire body melting into relaxed shock. 

She was. Her light was undiminished. Like a small lady bug hidden under a flower, she was almost unassuming, except Anakin would know her anywhere. He had memorized her entire being - this was just a part of her. 

And now he needed to get her back.

“Let’s get down there,”

* * *

The room is dark, but Obi-Wan and Anakin don’t need to see. The slimey feel of putrid, seeping darkness is enough to give them direction. It’s kind of like a bad smell, mixed with a horrible taste, that lingers on the back of your tongue.

Obi-Wan remembered this smell. Like it was yesterday. Like he was back with his Master, and they were saving the young queen of Naboo all over again, and that foul creeping darkness. He’d warned his Master. His Master had good-naturedly ignored him, claimed that the Force was not all knowing and that he should take it easy. 

And then the creature in the lowest part of the reactors had attacked them.

And Qui-Gon had been so badly damaged, his spine snapped, but not nearly as damaged as the creature. His Master had gotten his lightsaber right through their attacker’s middle. Cut him clean in half. And Obi-Wan had gotten to watch both sides of the thing fall into the raging pits. 

“Kenobi?”

Skywalker’s voice cut through his memories.

“I know this feeling...” He admitted to the younger man. 

Anakin’s eyes were solemn as their gazes met. It seemed he knew too.

“The Dark Side of the Force,” Obi-Wan told Anakin, who could only blink in surprise. “That’s what this is,”

Skywalker just shook his head. “It’s been a while since I’ve felt anything like this... That’s what it’s called?”

“It’s what the Jedi call it,” Kenobi said as they walked further forward, carefully and weary. “Those who wield the power were once known across the galaxy as the Sith,”

Anakin listened attentively even as they walked further and further into the wrecked smell.

“The Sith Empire was vast. Massive. Larger than the Republic, legend says. When I was in the creche, and before I was a Padawan to Qui-Gon Jinn, we were only taught a brief history of - well, what the Jedi considered their greatest enemy. Those of the Sith wielded the Dark Side like Jedi the Light Side. They were fearsome warriors, ruthless, and blood thirsty,”

“Are you trying to scare me straight or something?” Anakin asked, cocking his head as he tried to focus ahead of them and also on the absolutely fascinating history he seemed to have missed by never being a Jedi.

Kenobi shook his head, even though Anakin couldn’t see him. “No, I’m merely letting you know that whatever creature took Padme... they are powerful. Steeped in the dark like this... I wouldn’t be surprised if they were insane,”

They reached a door. The hallway was quiet, but the door itself seemed to scream. A warning, a stench, Anakin didn’t know but he knew he didn’t like it. It set his skin to goose pimples. By Kenobi’s intense gaze, Anakin guessed he felt the same way. 

They shared a look.

It had been a max of three days since they had met. Yet both clearly read what was being said without words.

_ On three. _

One.

Two.

Three.

Together they moved. Kenobi opened the door, Anakin readied his blaster. 

As the door flew open they stomped in. It was dark. The foul stench was overwhelming but each gritted their teeth to attack.

“Alright you slimy - “

“ANAKIN!”

“Padme??” 

Padme threw herself forward into Anakin’s arms. Completely throwing him for a loop. His arms came around her in a movement as old as time. She pulled back slightly to smile at him. She didn’t look too bad off. A little dirty, some cuts and scrapes, and her dress had seen better days - but she was smiling and she was alive.

Anakin was in shock. Then Padme’s brow kind of furrowed in ‘wait-a-second’ motion.

“Wait. Naboo is two days travel from here... Anakin what are you doing here?” Then she seemed to notice Obi-Wan her eyebrows rose clear off her face. She turned to Anakin’s ear to whisper-hiss.  “And with  _ Kenobi _ ?”

Anakin blubbered for a moment, trying to get his thoughts in order.

“We came to rescue you?” He asked, more a question than he wanted it to be.

Padme frowned but nodded. “That does make sense... how did you find us?”

Obi-Wan took that time to step forward. “Us?”

Anakin was still stuck on the fact that she was baffled to see him, happy yes, but not exactly... understanding? 

They had traveled across the galaxy for her!

“Are you okay?” Anakin asked her urgently, spreading himself thin in the Force as he tried to physically focus on the being in his arms. “We saw the holo of your kidnapping and figured everything out. We came as fast as we could!”

Padme raised a brow. 

“Wait. What do you mean you figured everything out?”

Anakin was about to explain, as shortly as he could, but Obi-Wan said. “No time. He’s here.”

It was true. The darkness seemed to spread and thicken, covering them.

“Of course he’s here,” Padme snorted. “Come on out, Maul,”

To both of their surprise, the being known as Maul... did. He was tall, almost taller than Anakin, and walked into the room with his cowl down. He was a Zabrak, just like Anakin had predicted, with eyes like sick yellow throw up. The dark side taking over. Anakin stepped back to better fall into a position to attack, Obi-Wan mimicking him.

Yet. Wow, Anakin thought as Maul walked over to them, undaunted by their presence. The man was calm in the Force, and Anakin was surprised to watch him come towards them without fear. Padme next to them didn’t feel even a little afraid in the force.

Kenobi on the other hand... tensed up, watching the being come over with the barely repressed urge to attack and defend. The being stared at Kenobi too, eyes narrowing, before he gave a snarly smirk.

“Seems the Jedi don’t know how to hold onto their own, as much as they fail at killing sith,”

Kenobi adopted an air of absolute nonchalance. “I suppose you’d know all about that.”

Anakin and Padme watched the silent showdown. 

“I’m... confused,” Anakin finally admitted as the showdown he was expecting to happen just... didn’t. 

“Welcome to mustafar,” Padme said.

* * *

What ended up happening made Anakin’s head hurt.

Maul’s story went like this:

He was given to the Sith Lord (yes, there was  **another** one), when he was young and raised in the way of the darkside by mentors and his Master. When he had been sent to destroy Naboo, Qui-Gon Jinn had been down when Obi-Wan had come in to save his master. Then Qui-Gon Jinn had cut the zabrak in half and left him for dead, a very unjedi like move that left the being half insane and desperate for revenge. 

Obi-Wan had been there, which was why Maul was so twitchy. And why Obi-Wan was three seconds away from pulling his blaster and shattering the zabrak into a million pieces.

Enter Padme - who promised she’d help make Qui-Gon Jinn’s life a living hell.

It was apparently the first spark of any semi-sane thought that Maul had jumped on it like a roast hog. For the week it took Obi-Wan and his crew to get to Padme, they’d already had hours to talk, plan, and generally had conversations like people did. Anakin was startled and a little baffled once he noticed that Padme was actually pretty... fond? comfortable? Of the zabrak. And it seemed to be mutual.

Once that was explained and Anakin and Obi-Wan had finally reacted.

“What the hell.” Anakin whispered

“Yeah, alright, I can get behind that,” Obi-Wan said at the same second.

“Wait. What?” Anakin demanded.

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. “I left the Jedi Anakin, and though I am no Sith, I can see the appeal of getting back at the Jedi any way I can. That it is my old Master is of no consequence.”

He privately added, _ I’m going to train you, aren’t I? _

“I’m in,” Obi-Wan said. 

Maul looked at him like he was going to bite him or hug him. Honestly, Anakin couldn’t get a good read on the dark fellow.

Obi-Wan wasn’t going to argue. Revenge against the Jedi was always a good thing.

* * *

The ride back was - Well, it was more than awkward. It was tense, nobody trusted anyone they picked up off that planet on the ship, and it was hostile. The environment was oppressive. Which is why Padme was left to entertain the dark side man, and Anakin and Obi-wan and the crew were left feeling distinctly... off.

Once the crew were at their stations and resolutely ignoring all of the insanity, the ship hummed quietly along in space.

“That was...” Anakin held his head in his hand as he stared at the door where Padme had disappeared with the Zabrak. 

“Interesting,” Obi-Wan stated, as he sat daintily. 

Anakin had been expecting battle. Had been expecting to take his blaster, to use the Force, to amaze everyone around him as he strode into battle without a second thought. Had been expecting Padme to see him and run to him, and thank him for the rescue. But that hadn’t happened. Padme hadn’t even  **needed** rescuing. She hadn’t needed... him. Just like always.

Sensing his morose thoughts, Obi-Wan laid a hand on his forearm. 

Startled, Anakin looked up. Obi-Wan’s eyes were a little sad, a little understanding, and exceedingly kind. Like he understood what Anakin was going through.

_... Maybe he did. _ Anakin thought to himself as he relaxed. The Jedi must have been oppressive people, and living that life - well Anakin couldn’t imagine it for himself every single time he met a Jedi or heard about what they did, how they lived.

“You’re not useless, you know,” Obi-Wan said casually.

Anakin blinked at him.

“I didn’t say I was,”

“But you felt like it. Obsolete. Padme didn’t need you, though she appreciated the effort. Us showing up didn’t change the outcome. She managed to befriend and ally herself all on her own. It matters how you feel, Anakin, it always will,”

“I - “ He cut himself off. “I don’t know what to say to that,”

Obi-Wan sat back and relaxed. 

“You don't have to say anything. It’s an observation, not a question.”

Yet Anakin felt touched that the man had been watching him closely enough to notice such a thing. The force between them turned into a tangible thing, and Anakin allowed himself to relax, too.

* * *

Two days in the shuttle, and Anakin only saw Padme a handful of times. She was busy assuring Naboo that she was fine, that she was going to need some special ops on her return, as well as making sure they had a reward ready for Kenobi and his crew. Surprisingly, that did take a lot of time.

The rest was spent with Maul.

The zabrak and she talked the entire time. Some of it plans for revenge, others plans for decidedly not revenge. All of it, not something Anakin could join in on. Anakin wasn’t sure how to take that, so he just... did. He kept quiet, and smiled, and chatted with the crew, but he didn’t try and find Padme or make her hang out with him.

* * *

All the while, Obi-Wan barely contained his smirk when he saw how the senator was treating Anakin.

Sometimes it was just plain old better that people disregarded force-sensitives who weren’t trained as Jedi. They could get away with more, were generally more stealthy, and powerhouses of sensitivity.

And Padme was driving her rouge force-sensitive right into his arms.

He’d have to remember to send her a fruit basket once all of this was over.

In the meantime... he had an Apprentice to comfort.


End file.
